Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Some of you may not want to know all of the nitty gritty of last week, but I feel like I need to blog about it, because when it gets down to it, the entire week was just a crazy sort of events that I probably will never forget.

Basically Tuesday I woke up feeling kind of queasy, but I wrote it off as being hungry, since most mornings I forget I haven't eaten breakfast until about 9am. After eating breakfast the feeling didn't go away, but I wasn't letting that stop me from going on a Walmart run with the boys. We went rather late in the morning, so B and I split a cup of popcorn chicken... probably not the smartest decision at this point in the game, but I was desperately trying to make the nausea go away, even if it meant eating what most people would keep an arm's distance away from in that same circumstance. When we got home I could tell I was going downhill fast, so I hurriedly got the boys fed. At that point I was in a good amount of abdominal pain too, so it was hard for me to even stand. Shortly after the boys were in bed I tried to take a nap, but didn't get far into that before I lost my stomach. I made it through the rest of day without incident, although the nausea was still there.

Wednesday I woke up feeling better, and a little hungry, but I was scared to eat anything, so I ate crackers for breakfast. One of my good friend's Dannis came over that morning to help with the boys and just hang out. I was feeling ok by lunch time, enough so that I made myself a plain turkey sandwich. About 20 minutes after eating though, things went downhill. Dannis left after I got the boys to bed, but during their naptime I started having really bad pains right underneath my sternum. This was also accompanied by nausea and a sick to my stomach feeling. When I called Dannis to let her know I was sick again, she thought I might need to go see a doctor. So she came back to my house to graciously watch the boys. I think here is the critical error, that is really my own fault. You see, all summer I've been saying that I need to get established with a doctor. We rarely get sick, and even more rarely do we go to the doctor. So if I need to go I end up just going to a walk-in clinic. I've never had any problems for walk-in clinics, but then again, I've never had abdominal pain accompanied by nausea and throwing up. When I went to the walk-in clinic, the person on call was a nurse practitioner who quite possibly had the worst bedside manner of any medical professional I have ever seen. He literally came in, asked what's wrong and I quote "well, not much I can do for you other than what you're already doing. Here's some phenergan. If the pain persists or comes back, you need to go to the ER because it could be your gall bladder". When I questioned him about the pain and shorness of breath I was experiencing again, he palpated my stomach and abdominal region (he had not laid a hand on me before that point) and just said "yeah if it persists I'd go to the ER." FOR REAL?!?! I filled my Rx and went home. Dannis was awesome and agreed to watch the boys till Drew got home so I could go to bed. Poor Drew was a stay at home dad from Wednesday through Friday morning. And to top things off, Wednesday night B woke up 3 separate times vomiting... and Drew had to clean it up all by himself. He's super dad if there ever was one!

I basically was in bed from Wednesday night through Friday morning. Yall, I was SO sick that drinking made me nauseated, but at this point, nothing was coming out. So basically I had the chest/abdominal pain, extreme nausea and I was TIRED from not being able to sleep. It was like a never ending cycle... feel bad, don't eat/drink, feel better, eat/drink, feel bad... you get the picture.

By Friday morning my back was hurting SO bad that I couldn't even lay without wanting to cry. I figured it was from me being in bed for so long, so I tried to lay on flat surfaces, have Drew massage my back, sleep sitting up... you name it, I tried it. By Saturday morning, when I was feeling a little less nauseaous but my back was still in pain, Drew sent me to a massage therapist in hopes that it would help. And it did, but only for a little while. I got home desperate to eat something (remember, at this point I had not eaten since Wednesday's sandwich and the fluids were not as much too). I tried my hand at french bread, and when I did OK I tried fried rice. Almost immediately eating sent me into EXTREME pain. Connor was awake with me, but Drew and Brayden were asleep. It got so bad that I had to wake up Drew and tell him something was WRONG with me. We consulted a few friends and everyone agreed that I needed to go to the ER at this point because I could barely function. We got to the ER around 6 that night, and by 11:30, after some blood work, a urinalysis and an ultrasound, it was ruled that I had a pretty awesome kidney infection.

It wasn't until Monday that I felt a little better, and Tuesday I felt much better other than just exhaustion, which I think can be attributed to the lack of eating. My body is slowly regaining strength. I lost a little over 5 pounds, which doesn't sound like much, but if you know me then you know it's a lot of weight! I really think, looking back on things now, that if I had seen a REAL doctor, or even a half way decent nurse practitioner, that they might have caught this before it got so out of hand. At the very least they could have ordered an ultrasound from their office, saving me the 5 hour wait and ER bill that ensued due to me not really having any other options at that point. I have a follow up appointment with a doc next week, and will be making a well visit as soon as he thinks I will be well enough to do so. SO... my PSA of the day is to make sure you are established with a doc :)

Thanks for all of the prayers during this entire ordeal... they have definitely been felt and make me realize just how blessed I really am! Since I am still recuperating I am going to take it easy this week on blogging again, but we'll be back in full swing next week for sure!

Monday, August 22, 2011

We went to the hospital to visit Katie and baby Coop tonight after Drew got home. Brayden was so in awe over the little baby, and SO proud to hold him "all by himself."

He was so gentle with him, and kept patting the blankets. It was SO sweet. SO much different than when Connor was born... that's why I think 2.5 years is a great age difference for kids.
Katie asked Brayden if he could teach Cooper how to play basketball, football, soccer and baseball. Brayden replied with a simple, "mmmhmmm." and then started whispering "baseball" in Cooper's ear. It was a moment that literally stole my heart.
Welcome to the world baby Cooper. We love you so much and are so glad that you are finally here with us!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Greetings from the home of the walking zombies. No, seriously yall. I feel as though I haven't slept in days. Connor has been waking up between 4 and 5 am for the past several days, and he didn't think about taking a break for the weekend unfortunately. Despite my fatigue, I feel like we had a fun, productive weekend.

Friday we went to a little play date with our friends Candice, Katie and Rebekah. I brought my camera, but it stayed in the car. I think I was realistically thinking, since we had 4 2 year olds and a 9 month old playing-- trying to snap a picture would have been like trying... well, like trying to do anything ridiculously difficult. ha! The kids had fun, and Brayden left talking about his friends Laci, Cilla and Sawyer. Friday afternoon Connor was fussy (imagine that), and I knew that me cooking dinner was just NOT going to happen. Thankfully I remembered that I had a few groupon deals for BackYard Burger, so we met Drew after he got off of work and ate dinner as a family. It was surprisingly pleasant, with both boys behaving themselves and not getting rowdy. Brayden even got to split a shake with Drew and I. When he took his first sip (it was his first shake), his eyes got big and he looked at Drew and said "an ice cream cone!" LOL. SO cute. I love this age because he's able to verbalize what he is learning and experiencing, and some of the things he says are just plain hilarious!

Saturday was our Rhea Lana's sale. Drew graciously took both boys with him to the gym in the morning so that I could have a morning to myself and also go shopping. I always get so nervous before the sale... I guess I feel pressure (only that which I put on myself-- Drew has never pressured me, just to be clear) to get everything we need since clothes are just SO expensive when you add up clothes for BOTH boys. I ended up getting almost all of their Christmas presents, and most of the clothes they need for my original budget for JUST the clothes, so I was happy. If you're local, the sale is at the Frisco Station Mall in Rogers and is running through this Friday. I highly recommend it-- it's how I buy most of my kids clothes!

Saturday afternoon Drew's dad flew back into town, so we spent most of the afternoon and evening with him. Drew took his dad and Brayden to the pool after dinner, and then we all retired early for the night since we were all pretty exhausted.

Walgreens was running some new register rewards deals on toothpaste and body wash, and since I had some register rewards expiring this week we decided to head there before church so I could roll those. I got 3 tubes of toothpaste and a bottle of bodywash for $2.50 plus tax. And I walked out of the store with $7 in register rewards. Have I mentioned how much I love couponing?! Today was also our week in the nursery. Last week was promotion Sunday, so we had a bunch of itty bitties in our class today. SO difference from the babies who were sitting up/borderline crawling! But I enjoyed getting snuggles with the littles, and it made me miss having a little one (well, sort of. I don't miss the long nights, the breastfeeding and the nap issues that seem to plague me when I have a newborn). After church we all enjoyed LONG naps. It was a GOOD nap, one of those naps where you dream really random things and wake up not remembering where you are at :) Drew had to mow the grass after naptime, and for some reason I thought it would be a great idea for me and the boys to play in the garage while Drew mowed. By the time he was finished we were all SO hot and sweating profusely. That's why the ice cream truck music made me nearly jump for joy, and I ran inside to grab some money and the camera. It was Brayden's first time to experience the ice cream man. He was a bit puzzled on why we were getting ice cream from a truck, but he was very excited about his orange push pop. And I was glad I grabbed the camera, because these next few pictures are the only ones I took the whole weekend!

"I'll take one of everything!"
"hey! What about me?!"
(I just realize I didn't disclaim that B was wearing a pj shirt. We're classy like that.)
As any good big brother would do, Brayden shared his push pop.
He kept licking his lips-- HILARIOUS!
lip smackin' good yall!
baby bird :)
we ended our shindig out in the backyard-- Brayden was COVERED in orange push pop.
so he cleaned off, and then got some water with Daddy :)
he even shared some water with Toby
and we ended the weekend with a good dose of Baby Einstein. Or as Brayden likes to say "Baby steinstein."

Friday, August 19, 2011

This baby boy, oh my goodness. He has my heart. And I'm sure if you've read this blog for long, he probably has yours too.

I took C to the Bentonville square yesterday for a little photoshoot. I sometimes wonder if he's going to be one of those pint sized preacher boys... he's just a bit on the charismatic side, wouldn't you say? ;)

He's also got an inquisitive side. Especially for small crunchy objects like leaves and dead insects :)

He's army crawling rather well... and trying really hard to get up on all fours and move. Lord. Help. Me.

So Connor, what else are you up to at 9 months? Well, let's see....

you wear 12-18 month and 18 month clothes (officially in the clothes B was in LAST SUMMER)

you wear size 4 diapers

as of last week, you weigh 21 pounds 10 ounces, are 28.7 inches long and have a head circumference of 18.5 inches.

You're FINALLY crawling, albeit army scooting. But you are very effective. Just today I had to pull you out from under the couch :)

You throw on command, and L.O.V.E. it. I'm starting to wonder if we'll have another athlete on our hands :)

You say "mama" and "baba". Not sure the "baba" is actually a name for anything, just babbles.

You still LOVE jumping in your jumperoo.

You have a love hate relationship with Brayden. You love everything he does, especially when he gives you attention. However, you do not like when Brayden wants to wrestle with you, or decides you need to not do something and you get bonked on the head :)

You take two naps a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Your naps are generally between 1.5 and 2 hours long.

Your favorite food is applesauce. You eat your weight in that stuff. Well, that and little puffs.

You still only have two teefers, but I feel like more are a comin'. You're a droolin' machine!

You still have HORRIBLE reflux. HORRIBLE. We change outfits several times a day, and our carpet is officially ruined. We're thickening your bottles with rice cereal to see if that helps. I can't really tell a difference, so I'm just praying that things start changing soon so that I don't have to deal with it much longer. I'm not holding my breath though.

Connor I love you so much and am so proud of you! You are my pride and joy and one of the biggest blessings that God has bestowed on me. Thank you for always smiling-- you bring a smile to my face and remind me that sometimes life just is too short to worry about the little things in life. I love you sweet boy!

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Brayden had his first day of Mother's Day Out (called "school" 'round these parts) for Brayden.

He was beyond thrilled. He'd been asking about going to school EVERY day since it let out in May.

He is my social butterfly, and waved and said 'hi' to every person he saw on the way into the church.

He's a charmer too, with all of the workers just a swoonin' over his little personality. I'm pretty sure he has them all wrapped around his little finger. When we got to his classroom, he put away his lunch bag and backpack in his cubby, walked right into the room, and never looked back. I think most moms would find this sort of offensive, but it actually makes me proud. My job is to train him and to release him-- holding onto strings doesn't help anyone.

I love that he has the opportunity of school-- it gives him great social interaction, and gives me a (much needed) break.

Of course, my days off this year will be a little different, since a certain someone isn't a newborn anymore :) In fact, I spent most of my morning chasing Mr. C around the living room. Back to finding out what I haven't put away properly :) haha! We took a few moments out of our morning to capture what will most likely be the last good photoshoot of him in a while. Trying to photograph infants who are mobile is nearly impossible :) Here's a sneak peak for all of you who just can't stand to wait to read his 9 month post tomorrow...

The boys BOTH woke up on the wrong side of the bed. This means that I had to correct Brayden over a million times for the same thing. Connor, who is normally very laid back and happy, cried the entire afternoon, with the exception of a few minutes we spent outside. I took these pictures during our few moments of sanity in the backyard.

When we went back inside, the whining and crying commenced. I was about to pull my hair out, so we decided to go for a walk. That was great until we got back. Then I let the dog inside. The dog, who, unbeknown to me, had been laying in the mud while we were gone. At that moment (the one with the dog running inside), the straw broke the cameels back. Because you see, the dog ran laps in the kitchen, which in turn left mud EVERYWHERE. Considering I had two babies and also houseguests coming in town on Wednesday, I had no choice but to mop the floors. After a HARD day with the boys. I really thought at that moment I might kill Toby.

I started breathing deeply and was somehow able to keep it together until Drew got home (thankfully I had the capacity of mind to forewarn him of my lack of patience and energy). I was sent out of the house (kindly) to have a peaceful dinner and return when the boys would both be in bed. I sat at Taco Bueno last night in peace, thanking God for the awesome husband that He has given me, refreshed my mental state, and was able to get home, mop the floors AND go to bed at 9:30. I'm still tired, but I am hopeful that we'll have better moments today.And for the record, I don't want this post to sound like Debbie Downer. I just had one of those mom days where it seems like your kids and everything else was just going against you from the get go. I love my boys, and despite the crazies that make up our life, I wouldn't trade it for the world.